So I went to Holiday Valley yesterday to get some practice before I go to Whiteface in February. I guess I'm in slightly better shape than I thought because I'm a whole lot less sore than I anticipated. Anyway Holiday valley is kinda overpriced considering how small the vertical drop is. It looks like its probably a good place to learn. All ski places have the ski patrol and they are usually pretty cool as long as you are skiing in control. Holiday Valley has the added safety patrol, They have nothing better to do other than bust people skiing on trails that are closed but should be open. There was one trail there called chute, I believe, which was closed all day and towards the afternoon I decided all that fresh powder should not go to waste. My friend was apprehensive about going till I said "what are they going to do, take away our lift tickets??" It was the best trail we skied all day. When we got to the top of the lift "Sharon" armed with a pair of diagonal cutters was waiting for us. She took our regular tickets and gave us our tickets of shame.
I get so annoyed with some ski places. Why they have perfectly good trails closed just because they aren't groomed makes no sense to me. Some people actually like skiing ungroomed snow. I thought she was being way too dramatic about the whole situation. I'm already skiing at my own risk anyway, why shouldn't it be my right to decide whether or not I'm capable of skiing a trail?
But I did have a good time. They good about the mountain is at least they have a couple of high speed quads. So the time between bombing down the mountain is reduced by a few minutes.
SKIING!!!! ack!
i am soooo jealous.
awesome! at least you earned yours in defiance. i got one in aspen when i was first learning to snowboard. i lost control on a weird turn, which ended up sending me down a closed double black diamond. of course i promptly wiped out after hitting a mogul and was hunted down by ski patrol. i ended up riding my board like a sled the rest of the way down the mountain because i hurt myself and refused to ride in the 'i'm such a loser ski hammock'. :)
So is the snow good enough to make it worth a trip?
Oooh, ooh, you got in trouble!
Could you have just outskied Sharon if you were at the top of the lift?